I was fixing my daughter's Toyota this weekend and the paint color is really tough to deal with. I straightened the dent, bondo'd, puttied and got it smooth down to nice wet sand finish. Since it is a small area (6 inches by a foot) I used my "airbrush" vs. the regular gun with my compressor. The darn Toyota paint color is a bugger. When I bought paint at Toyota it was way off. I used Paint Scratch before with good luck on my wife's metalic blue Mercedes. This "red" metalic is really tough and weird. When I blend it out, it separates into a purple at the edges and really dark red in the middle. Rather than two stage it with clearcoat directly, I am going to wait for a good hardening on the paint which is rough to touch and an array of colors out to the blend. I have 1000 grit to work it over and see what the color is before I commit to clear coat. This color is tough........even Toyota acknowledges it. When I took it and painted it on your silver card and painted on clear it matched pretty closely. COMMENTS? TIPS? I sprayed a whole restoration car about two years ago and did pretty good but this RED.............

Posted by: admin

Posted on: February 8th, 2005, 6:37amReply: 1

How old is the Toyota? What is the color code? Red and Gold are some of the worst faders out there and even after just a year, the original factory paint can be way off. I would probably send a part into PaintScratch and pay for custom matching as this would solve the color matching problem. Or you can blend the paint for a couple of feet around the repaired area, and then take the clearcoat to a panel edge for a less noticeable repair.

Posted by: fadler1

Posted on: February 8th, 2005, 11:51pmReply: 2

Unfortunately, it is a 2002 so it is not the OLD RED TOYOTA. The dealership justs shakes their head since they admit horrible regional variability. This is a Canadian built one.

Posted by: fadler1

Posted on: February 8th, 2005, 11:55pmReply: 3

I think it was 3P1 which I sent to you with the VIN

Posted by: admin

Posted on: February 11th, 2005, 6:44amReply: 4

You could send us a sample of the red paint we sent you and we could compare it with our color chip but some reds after just a couple years have faded several shades from the original factory chip. The purple concerns me though as this sounds a bit unusual.

Posted by: fadler1

Posted on: February 11th, 2005, 6:56pmReply: 5

I will wait until she brings the car back this weekend and I will 1000 grit wet sand and see how far off it is. The purple in the blend out is weird. I really made sure it was mixed well at 1:1 with your thinner and then put it through a standard filter (the paper free ones you get from Auto Paint stores) into the airbrush reservoir. I will let you know and get back to you. Thanks for your help.